Matt Leslie brings 'Summer of '84' to screen

Friday

Matt Leslie, who grew up in Ipswich, finally brings a movie he co-wrote and produced to the screen.

It’s local boy makes good -- or at least something like that.

In this case, it’s more like local boy becomes grown man and makes good.

It took Matt Leslie, 38, 10 years, but at last a movie he co-wrote and produced actually became more than words on paper.

Leslie's movie “Summer of '84” will hit local theaters soon.

“I got a lot of no's. My writing partner and I have been writing for seven years. It’s been like a 10-year process,” said Leslie, who worked on the movie “Straight Outta Compton.”

Leslie and his writing partner, Stephen J. Smith, already garnered some serious industry recognition when their tight-budget indie movie that made it into the prestigious Sundance Film Festival as a midnight selection.

“It was one of those moments in life,” Leslie said. “It was like, wow, that was really cool for us.”

“Summer of ’84” combines coming of age with Alfred Hitchcock -- teen boys may or may not be piecing together clues to murder, by a local cop yet, because as the movie trailer says, “Serial killers live next door to somebody.”

The movie is “an homage to movies we loved growing up,” Leslie said. “It’s a love letter to our favorite movies and putting our own spin on that.”

Leslie grew up in Ipswich and remembers when Russell Orchards was Goodale Orchards. He saw ’80s movies like “E.T.” and “The Karate Kid” at the Strand, which no longer exists. He went to Endicott College in Beverly and met his future wife, Susie Castillo, there.

Castillo became Miss USA and the couple moved to L.A. so she could host TV shows and then to New York City where Castellio would be what MTV called a vee-jay. They then moved back to L.A., where they now live.

Ipswich remains close to Leslie’s heart and head.

“It was great place to grow up,” Leslie said. “I feel like wherever you grow up, you can’t contextualize it until you move somewhere else. It’s a beautiful town. I miss it. My family is there.”

Luckily, for Leslie, he visits often.

“Summer of ‘84” is part Ipswich, part the suburbs of Milwaukee where Smith grew up and mostly imagination.

“Very little of the plot is based on anything we went through,” Leslie said of the script he and Smith wrote. “We both remember neighbors who we thought were creepy. But at 13 years old, a lot of people seem creepy.”

Seeming creepy sets the movie’s crux: Are the boys actually in the throes of serial killer or not?

The setting couches the question more than places it.

“Summer of ’84” is set in Ipswich, Oregon, and shot in Vancouver, a product more of convenience for the three directors working on the movie who are all Canadian than a conscious decision.

The original script was a little more North Shore-centric, but that changed. The Roller Palace in Beverly, which recently celebrated its last skate, became Ipswich Lanes. The block party on Market Street, Leslie remembers -- now the Clam Fest and located at the Riverwalk -- became the Ipswich Bay Festival.

“The final act of movie needs the water, so instead of Cape Ann, we have Cape May and what was the Cape Ann Killer became the Cape May Slayer,” Leslie said.

Such name and place changes affect the movie very little, which comes back to that central question, “Are the kids really on to a serial killer?”

The fact the boys pursue their question, even running up against that local cop, says more about “Summer of ’84,” than setting.

“Ultimately, there’s a streak I have that’s anti-authoritarian. That’s in the DNA of the main character, Davy. That’s who he is and ultimately that’s what gets him into trouble," Leslie said. "I think I have a lot of Davy in me. His imagination can get the best of him and I have that. My mind likes to tell stories.”